Complementary
by SohmaInuChic
Summary: Everything is right in the Sohma family - minus the usual chaos - as Senior year draws to a close. Everyone is well - including Akito, much to the displeasure of most. What could bring things to change to much so quickly? And is a change always brought
1. Cars

::Obviously, Furuba is not my creation, but the plot line is my own. Comments welcome.::

**+++**

            "_Kyo!  Eyes on the _road_!"_

            Yuki Sohma fixated his violet glare on Kyo from his seat in the back.  He hated letting Kyo drive his car - or most of the Sohma family, in fact.  He was tempted to think that one of the curses to the Sohmas (of which most would be oblivious) could be the fate of horrible driving.  Hatori - careful, meticulous Hatori - had backed his Jaguar into a motorcycle.  Shigure was subjected to a lifetime ban from driving by the country.  Haru could crash anything that moved more quickly then his bicycle.  Kyo had taken the driving test twelve times before he passed.  

            So _why_ was he letting Kyo drive his precious car?

            _Because Tohru says so_, his thoughts prodded.  _Because she says all Kyo needs is practice.  Because she was feeling particularly pleasant towards Kyo yesterday._

            After all, Tohru was the only one who could have forced this favor on him.  If Akito had demanded it so, Yuki would have simply slit his own tires.  _Which would probably have been for the best in any case_, he thought as the car threatened to slide into oncoming traffic.

            Yuki could have spit ink at Akito, could've killed him many times.  More appropriately _would _have, but he _couldn't_ do those things.  He was under the curse - that damned curse.  So the thoughts that crept into his head were manipulated to replay the sick turn of events centuries in the past. 

If it weren't for Kyo being so resentful of being the outcast, being the Cat, he and Yuki may have been friends.  He wished the Sohma curse had never been, but wishing never did any good to their centuries old fate.  Besides which, Yuki had more important things on his mind then wishes.

            Things like the welfare of his car.

            If Kyo wasn't careful - the car swerved a bit and Yuki bit the inside of his lip.  If Kyo wasn't careful, they and the car would end up somewhat like the testing car from his sixth attempt at a license.  The only exception being that at this speed you wouldn't have time to jump.  Yuki winced at the thought of becoming a road pancake.

            "Kusou nezumi," Kyo spat, misreading Yuki's slight expression, "I was nowhere near that guard rail."

            "I believe when the paint starts flying off and a high squeal is heard, the guard rail has been scraped," Yuki spat back equally.  He would have to think of some way to get the poor car fixed when this was over.  He was glad, though, that Tohru was not in the car.  An accident was bound to happen with Kyo driving.

            "Slow down," Yuki advised coldly, "You're going to lose control."

            "Will not, you're just not used to driving the speed limit," Kyo spat, "You're always slow at everything."

            Yuki held the retort that played on his tongue.  If Kyo got too riled up, he would take both hands off the wheel, leave his foot on the pedal and drive right into something.  If Yuki hadn't valued his own life - and the lives of the other drivers - he would have simply enraged the orange haired idiot to see what he would do.

            "Still too fast," Yuki said disdainfully.  The criticism simply slipped past his lips.  With anyone else this wouldn't have happened - but a car driving that quickly with Kyo has a driver was a death trap.  Yuki could have slapped himself.

            "You want to start something, baka nezumi?" Kyo yelled, whirling to face Yuki.

            Then it all happened at once.

            The car spun, sailing over the guardrail and the median - the only thing between their car and oncoming traffic.  As if in slow motion, Yuki saw Kyo lose momentum and slam his head into the back of the seat.  The tires squealed as they pushed themselves across the steel of the median.  The side mirror was snapped off by a clod of grass.  

Yuki saw the blue car approaching.  He saw it all.  The chips on the paint, the worn windshield wipers, and the license plate.  It was staring up at him beaming to his position in the rear, where he was frantically diving for the steering wheel.

            He reached it a second too late.

*

            Tichini Koizumi sped along in her car.  It was going to be a good day.  She was going to make it be a good day if it killed her.

            By the looks of things, it very well might.

            The world was working very hard against her.  The car radio refused to play more then one station - an American Country station that kept playing that same song over and over again.  The parking space at her part-time job had been replaced by a dumpster.  She went out to lunch, ordered, and realized she had forgotten her wallet.  When she found her wallet - at work - all of her money was gone.  Well, what little of it there had been, and - admittedly - that wasn't very much.

            Yet today was her first interview for a nursing position since her internship.  Surely nothing could spoil that?

            The singer on the radio twanged on his little acoustic guitar and she drummed her fingers on the wheel.  She was speeding, but what harm could it do?  _The - er, what had the doctor called it_?  Her thoughts sailed along faster then the wheels of her car.  Sometimes breaking into tangents, other times becoming complete circles of thought.

            Happy thoughts.

            Was she really losing it?  Her most recent professor told her she had a tendency for eccentricity, but was her sanity really sliding away in large chunks these days? It was a-

            _Oh look, that's a cute car._

            _What was I thinking about? _she thought numbly.  That was odd.  One moment she had known exactly, the next she was wondering what on earth was going on.  It had happened twice today.  If she didn't know any better, she would have herself committed.  Tychini laughed at the thought.  How would her old professor feel if she knew her best student was losing it - rapidly?

            In all honesty, Tychini new that she _was_ one of the best nurses coming out of her internship.  That was how she had come by her soon-to-be interview after all.  Working privately on an estate must be easier then the work at the hospital.  How many people at an Estate can break legs, arms, toes, etc. on a daily basis?  Besides, unless one of them had a yearlong case of the flu, she wouldn't have to worry about cleaning up vomit for quite some time.

            Tychini reached down and tried to change the volume on the radio.  The twangy singer was more then irritating now.  Out of sheer clumsiness she missed the knob, bumping the tuner.  Looking down to find the volume button, she heard the scream of wrenched metal somewhere off - or was it somewhere close?

            Tychini looked up just in time to see the car speeding for her, still carrying its bits of pieces of metal and grass from skidding across the highway.  The driver looked only semi-conscious while someone else dove from the back for the steering wheel.  Tychini tried to turn hard, but in the back of her head she knew the car couldn't make that maneuver.  The last thing she saw was a pair of violet eyes staring at her.

            Eyes full of terror.

+++

Author's Notes: Cliffhanger, eh?  Ah well, you'll live.  Chapter two will go up when I finish Chapter four, Chapter three goes up when I finish Chapter five, and so forth and so on.  (Except 6 - 10 are complete.)  Please review. :)


	2. Cobwebs

::Disclaimer: (See first chapter)::

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            Yuki coughed.  His chest felt sore - that stupid cat must have tried to beat him while he slept.  "Baka," he mumbled, forcing his eyes open.  His head protested.

            What was going on?

            Yuki tried to sit up.  There was a weight on his chest that he could not lift.  Yuki forced his eyes open.  Total darkness.  This was sick - was this someone's idea of a joke?  Was he really at home, dreaming?  If he was dreaming, he has better wake up soon; he had other things to do then dream…  A strange sense of déjà vu accompanied the thought.  _Better things to worry about…_

            THE CAR!

            Yuki writhed.  He had to get free; he wouldn't be trapped here, held under his own car.  "Kyo!" he muttered, his voice sounding strangely distant.  His voice sounded as though it were drifting through an empty hallway.  A thought hit Yuki with a distinct slam.

            _I can _not _be dead!_ he panicked, struggling more to gain momentum to-

            "Yuki, stay perfectly still."

            The voice sounded familiar.  The same sort of noise an organ makes when it's being tuned - hollow, stately, aloof; but out of place.  The voice was very reassuring - like finding a landmark that shows you which way to find your home after being lost.  Oh, no, the words were not assuring, it was more of the recognition.  Why was he thinking these things?

            "Close your eyes, we're going to pull you out," the voice commanded, "But with your head injury it may hurt if you look at the light."

            Hatori.  That's who the voice belonged to - or who belonged to the voice.  How could he have known?  How could anyone have known?  Probably Shigure and his dogs again.  "Baka inu," he wheezed as he felt himself pulled out from the weight of the car.  Everyone was stupid.  The whole family was stupid.  The curse was stupid.

            The light burned even his closed eyes - consumed him violently - and he felt no more.

*

            Kyo was sitting up by the car long before Hatori and Momiji freed Yuki.  It was so odd - Yuki trying to grab the wheel, throwing himself up like that.  Yuki had taken the entire brunt of the dashboard crashing in, while Kyo had been pitched out the side window as the car rolled.  His right arm no longer moved, nor did his right leg.  He kept his mouth shut from the pain.

            The car he had hit was totaled.  It had rolled off into the trees on the other side of the road.  Unless someone had been watching, they would assume Kyo had lost control and skidded off the road.  The car had been rolling when it hit the tree anyhow.  If Kyo hadn't rolled from the car when he did, he would have been impaled on a tree branch right now.  If Yuki hadn't jumped for the wheel he would be dead.

             Yuki had saved him.

             Kyo flinched at the implications.  Yuki had saved him.  Even if he hated Yuki, he would have to pay a life debt.  He found himself wishing Yuki _would_ die, so that he would be free of the burden.  Kyo leaned back and lay against the grass tentatively.  There was another problem, though.

            Whoever had been in other car was dead. 

            Kyo may have been a fighter for nearly all his life, but… He had killed someone?  He was not prepared to kill someone.  Not now - possible not ever.  Sure, he threatened Yuki all the time - that was just life.  Live, breathe, eat, threaten Yuki's life.  Even if he could have, he wouldn't.  Perhaps Hatori would find someone alive there?  He hoped…

            Kyo's mind came full circle to the thought of Hatori and Momiji.  How had they been following the car the whole time without his notice?

           _Maybe it's because you don't look in the rearview mirror, you idiot, _Kyo's thoughts sneered viciously.

          _I do look!  Well, er, sometimes.  When I'm going to change lanes.  Maybe.  I think…_, Kyo tried to think back at himself.  It didn't matter that he was arguing with himself - no, he was more used to that then he would let on.  Kyo let his eyes slide shut the moment Yuki was pulled from the car.  Battered and broken, but still breathing, Yuki would live.  Kyo knew it the minute he saw Momiji smile again.

          If only there could have been another miracle today.

*

           Tichini floated through a hazy mist surrounding her thoughts.  The mist hung from the corridor of her mind, like cobwebs in an unused room.  An unused room that was silent.  Absent of all the noise of centuries before.

            It was a factory that had been shut down.

            She could not hear her heart beat, her breathing, anything.  She hung in a limbo between life and death, a limbo balanced in her mind.  Two thoughts were the most used in her mind - one was extremely happy, joyous and synthetic.  Synthetic, but without pain.  The other was harsh, painful and bright.

            The difference was that only one door was real.

            _So much for only slipping away,_ Tichini thought, laughing simply to make noise in her head, _I've completely fallen off the boat._

            She felt her way to the warm, synthetic happiness, and shook her head.  This was a choice - a dream she could never wake from.  The other door…  The other door was a pain she could never sleep away.  Time was fleeting - though she didn't know why.  Tears streaming down her face, she knew it was the last moment before her choice was decided for her.

            Tiptoeing across the spindly web of thoughts - climbing through the trap of happiness ensnaring her every thought - she reached out for the cold, painful door that lead to life.

*

            Hatori felt his heart sink as he climbed down the incline where the little blue Miata had flipped.  Impaled on a tree stump, there was no possibility of survival.  The car had been nailed in the fore-driver's side (probably automatically killing whoever was driving), rolled down the embankment, and was now jutted on a tree.  The motor twitched pathetically, like a speared fish whose nerves did not realize it was dead yet.

            But where did that noise come from?  It was a soft sort of noise, like someone calling for help.  Someone who was too weak to scream.  Hatori's brain told him to stop being an idiot, but his legs stretched further.  Yuki had been saved - miracle of miracles - by throwing his upper body above the dashboard line and shoving his arms up to block the shards of glass.  It wasn't possible to have another miracle, was it?

            After all, Hatori wasn't particularly gifted in the way of miracles in the first place.

            He found his legs sprinting him the rest of the way to the car, the entire way his voice screaming, _Don't die, don't die, don't die…_  He pulled off what was left of the door to find - the car was empty.  A stump stabbed clean through the driver's seat, but there was no blood.  Hatori soon noticed why - the seat belt had snapped.

            _But where were they thrown?_

            Hatori followed the shards of glass from the windshield.  He searched the ground, the hollows - even the branches for a trace of clothing, blood.  Something.  He was looking to the branches when he stumbled across the obstructive tree root.  Coughing, he looked back to see a girl - pale with blood loss and coughing up blood lightly - staring at him with a delirious smile toying at her lips.

            "A doctor…" she coughed, blood flecking her ashen skin, "I thought you'd never get here."

++++++++++++++++++++

Author's Notes: Ah, here we go.  Getting to the first conflict of the story.  I'm rambling, but I'm sure we all see the connection, eh? ;)  Even if you don't, ah well.  Chapter 5 is almost done and then - amazingness - all of the fic will be complete and uploaded one at a time (seeing as I'm also uploading it to my webpage for a friend to link to it for her Furuba site).  Hope you like!


	3. Stitches & Sedatives

::Disclaimer: See Chapter One::

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                By mid-afternoon, everyone in the Sohma family had given up on trying to visit Kyo in his bed at the hospital.

                Kyo hated hospitals.  They smelled oppressively of detergent and wilting flowers.  The I.V. tube was uncomfortable and impractical.  The heavy casts kept him from moving - and no one would tell him how long these plaster obstructions would be rotting away at him.  Of course, there was also Kyo's least loved ritual of any medical visit.

                Needles.

                It was even worse here - there was a shot for everything.  Hatori flatly assured him that most of what they had to give him was sedatives so that he would hurt himself - or put a doctor in traction - when they came to check on his ribs.  Too bad they didn't help.

                The drugs must not have been working correctly - ever minute he felt more awake and more irritable.  Sleep wasn't drifting over him as it should have.  In fact, it seemed that sleep was drifting further and further _away_ from him.  This wasn't helping him at all.

                For the first time in his life, Kyo desperately wanted to fall asleep, even though he wasn't tired.  Images kept flashing up in his head - the highway, Yuki, the guardrail, the blue car, the back of Yuki's head.  Everything came up in bits and pieces.  A flash of the guardrail.  A still shot of the little blue Miata plowing towards him.  Yuki laying beside the car, covered in blood and fighting for his life.  If Kyo had not known better, he would have broken down and _begged_ Hatori to erase these memories.

                Just as Kyo thought he was going to break down, a different doctor arrived with a shot of a more potent sedative.  Kyo couldn't even bring himself to fight; he simply prayed that he would be unconscious quickly.  Off in the oblivion where nothing mattered.

                _Just not forever, _he thought as he drifted into darkness with a final picture of the blue car as both vehicles began to roll.

*

                Hatori leaned against the wall and let out a sigh that betrayed his stoic face.  He was exhausted and worn.  His hands had already been treated for the minor scratches he's received pulling Yuki and the girl from the wreckage, but wrapped in gauze, Hatori looked more like a failed suicide attempt then a doctor who had saved two lives.

                Shigure had taken note of all this when Hatori sighed.  Hatori wasn't as cold as he seemed.  He was worried, and Shigure knew it.  He was worried too.  Kyo's injuries - a broken leg, broken arm and three cracked ribs - hardly amounted to anything compared to Yuki's extensive wounds.  Shigure, himself, knew little of the accident, even in these sixteen hours after.  Only that they had skidded across three lanes of interstate and managed to slam into the car of a girl.

                The girl… Hatori swore it was the oddest thing he had ever seen.  When he finally came across the girl, she was laying weakly on the ground.  Weak, but conscious.

                _"I swear, it was like she knew someone was going to come find her.  She was sitting there, bleeding herself out onto the ground, and smiling."_

                Hatori had been momentarily baffled - too baffled to get the girl's name before she lapsed into her coma.  Which was just as well.  The girl would have bled to death in the car if Hatori hadn't managed to create a tourniquet out of pieces of his coat.  Her internal damage had been worse then Yuki-kun's.

                Yuki had not been catapulted from the car at 124 kph directly into a tree.

                Most of the girl's bleeding was from landing on windshield glass.  Her bloody cough was the result of internal damage from slamming into the tree.  Yuki had held so much pressure on his chest in the car that he had been unable to breathe for several minutes, along with have severe broken bones.  It had been bad.

                So bad that Hatori had specifically told Shigure to leave Tohru at her grandfather's and under no circumstances was he to allow her to come.

                Shigure sighed for himself.  It wouldn't have been right for Tohru to come - he knew there would be too many bad memories to pass, watching her new "family" being torn apart.  She wouldn't have even been able to talk to Kyo - the last Shigure had heard, the boy was begging for sedatives to knock him unconscious.  It was a pity he would have been the only one awake if Tohru came.

                Yuki and the girl had been ushered into emergency care - surgery soon after that.  Pins, stitches and removing pieces of embedded glass.  From the sounds of it, both would come out of surgery more synthetic pieces of mechanical wonder then pure flesh and blood.

                _"You didn't want to see him," Momiji wept as Shigure arrived, "All mangled up like a doll in a weed whacker.  His clothes were all red… and… and…"_

                "Sohma-san?"

                The doctor's voice cut through his thoughts and he lifted his eyelids.  Hatori simply looked at the doctor with the same cold eyes he looked through every waking moment of his day.

                "The girl you rescued is waking up now.  I'm sorry we didn't inform you when she first came out of surgery, but we weren't aware if you would care to know…" he broke off.  "Since you have generously agreed to pay for her medical bills, I would suggest one of you go talk to her."

                Shigure choked back laughter.  While the doctor said "one of you", he looked directly at Hatori with a sort of "you are bound and obligated, now stop staring and get a move on" look plastered across his face.  The man read like a book - a picture book.  The look was so plain that Shigure wouldn't have offered to go had he wanted to.

                "Aaaah, you go ahead Hatori-kun," he, said, looking up at Hatori benignly.  "I will wait here for Yuki-kun to come out of surgery."

                If Hatori's glare ever got any colder, Shigure would have sworn it just had.  But Hatori recognized his own obligation.  He had pulled her out of the woods single-handedly - and had the scratches to prove it - so he would be forced to except thanks at one point or another.  With a stiff nod, he assented to a fate he couldn't refuse and moped his way down the hall.

*

                Hatori clenched his teeth and ground them together invisibly.  He did not want to be the one to greet this girl who he had found in the woods.  There was something unnerving about her.

                There was something unnerving about someone bleeding to death who could lay and grin.

                He was not scared of her - he was tense about what she might do.  If the delirium had not been from bloodloss the girl would have to be stark, raving mad.  It was more then he could take to deal with another bout of insanity for the day.

                _Don't think like that,_ he commanded himself.  _There's no proof that everyone in the world who is a bit touched in the head is dangerous._

                "Here we are," the doctor said shortly, "ICU room 247.  I'll leave you here."

                As the doctor stalked off - in a downright black mood from having to convince someone to accept thanks - Hatori slipped in.  The girl appeared to have drifted off for a moment.  She was thin, but tall and lanky.  Her hair - thin, black hair - was surprisingly spared from a shearing.  Hatori was grateful - he always felt awkward trying to speak to someone and trying to avoid looking at their head at the same time.

                He reached for the file, hoping to see an injury list.  What he saw shocked him slightly.  There was no name marked, but age had been estimated.  "19 - 20".  He would have considered her younger - about sixteen or so.  

But then she wouldn't have been driving, would she?

She had both legs in casts and an arm plastered all the way to her collar bone.  The stitches were still fresh and she was covered in scratches.  

How had she survived?

It had been bothering Hatori ever since they arrived at the hospital.  The girl had been projected out of her car diagonally, slammed a tree and fallen onto a blanket of glass shards.  Why hadn't she died before he'd been able to reach him?  Why had she been spared?  Why her?  How had she woken from surgery so quickly?  Hatori rubbed his temples in frustration at each unanswered question.

"Headache?"

Hatori's head flung up.  The girl was staring at him, blue eyes - blue? - bright and cautious.  She reminded Hatori of a fawn - frail, curious and desperately alive.

"No," he said in his own typical fashion, his tone businesslike and firm.  "Just tired."

"You pulled me out of the woods," she - almost cheerily - prompted.  "I owe you my deepest gratitude."

_Ah?_ Hatori thought.  _Why is she so pleasant coming off anesthesia and back into pain?_

"It was only natural.  Two members of my family caused the accident," he replied, "If I would have left you I wouldn't be able to call myself a doctor."

"Ah, you're a doctor too?" her eyes were wide in pleasant surprise, "I've just finished my internship.  I was applying for my first position today."

"A doctor?  You're only nineteen," Hatori said, flatly stating his disbelief.

"Twenty, and I was advanced."  She smiled, then frowned after a moment of thought.  "I apologize for the tremendous ammount of blood I must have left in your car.  I'll clean it as soon as I get out of here, I swear."  She paused.  "Except you'll most definitely want it cleaned before then won-"

"What's your name?" Hatori interrupted.  She kept talking as if it were good enough to know she could.

"Tichini Koizumi."

Hatori nearly fell out of his chair, displaying one brief instant of pure emotion.  "You're the Tichini Koizumi who was going to interview for a position at the Sohma compound?"

"Yes," she said, eyes widening in surprise and then narrowing in suspisicion.  "How did you know?"

"I am Sohma Hatori," he said without emotion and regaining his composure.  What was going on with this world where everyone seemed to know everyone through some odd link?

"Oooh!" she said, eyes widening in embaressment.  "I am so sorry for today, a thousand apoligies," she sputtered.

Hatori waved her off with a bandaged hand.  "It isn't your fault."

"I suppose I won't be getting the job?" she said lamely.  "I mean, you think I'm too young and I'm obviously in no condition to start, am I?"  Her dejected sigh would have brought tears from anyone else.

"Why were you so determined to get the job?" Hatori asked.  "You sent enough reference letter to create a small book.  Or a small novel in any case."

"I'm coming out of my internship and my final college term," she explained softly, "But my parents moved to London mid-term.  I need a place to work and a place to stay.  I really was the best in my class, I swear it."  She took a moment to flash wounded-Bambi eyes at him.  "I could stil do a good job.  I heal fast.  It's in my health records."

"I… I will have to think on it-"

"I can do a better job then anyone else you've looked at," she spat, her eyes burning in anger now.  "To turn me down would be uncalled for and you're quite aware it could be labeled age discrimination.  Check the facts, the letters, the scores.  I am the best upcoming doctor in the country and you would turn me down because your family nearly killed me?"

As she finished she lapsed into a coughing spell.  Hatori frowned deeply.  She could certainly force her attitude on others.  She was forceful and a bit too unnerving.  It was as though everything that could be wrong about her was.  He had to make her realize that he was not going to hire her - and he had to do it fairly.

"If you're going to work at the compound you would have to be able to walk and function within six months," he said, giving her an unreachable goal.

"Don't worry, I will be."

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Author's Notes: Ah, I bet you're all staring with sweatdrops on your foreheads.  Before we form an angry mob that says, "INACCURATE!", let me explain.  Hatori was overworked to the point of blacking out - hence the hiring of another.  You're probably still grumbling, but hey, it is a fanfic, give me _some_ literary liscense. ^^


	4. Walls

::Disclaimer:  Wow, would you believe that out of these characters, only Tichini is mine?  Huh, I never would have guessed… :)::

Yuki sat in the hospital bed and ached to leave. He felt restless and flighty. The schoolwork the teachers sent didn't seem like it was nearly enough to keep his mind occupied. Today he wouldn't even have a visitor to take his mind of his boredom. 

Actually, he probably would have a visitor. The girls from school showed up constantly, often with a present of some sort. If they didn't stop coming soon, someone would mistake his room for a floral shop. Besides which, these were not the visitors he want to see anyhow. 

Tichini had come to visit every day since she had become mobile. He had welcomed her visits because she was interesting - an an odd, sporatic sort of way. She could make him laugh by being herself - in that, she reminded him quite a bit of Tohru. Except there was something about Tichini he simply could not put his finger on. It could have been her attention defecit ways, or perhaps her strange, lopsided smile she gave when she was unsure of herself, but there was something that struck him as familiar. 

Not in a good way. 

Now that she was gone, it seemed the no-visitors time had pushed itself into slow motion. He was left to sulk to himself. How had she managaed to walk again so quickly? Why was he still in the hospital when she had been allowed to leave? Only six months had passed. Her injuries had been worse then his. 

If she were not his friend, he would have hated her. 

He rubbed his temples gently. His doctors did say he was healing fast. That he could leave in about a month or so - but where did that leave her? In the omnipotent category? Yuki reached over and took a sip of his water. 

Kyo had gone home after only a month in Yuki's snow-colored prison. For a while he had been living on painkillers - thoroughly convinced he had killed the girl in the other car, he hadn't been able to function until Shigure forced Tichini into talking to him. It was like that stupid cat had woken up from whatever nightmare he had been stuck in. 

Too bad he can't see he's caused more pain to others then he ever could for himself, Yuki thought bitterly. Tichini forgave him and was immediately on speaking terms with both of them. In that, she also reminded him of Tohru - so ready to forgive and forget. Although in Tichini it may have been more given to the fact that she couldn't keep her mind on a subject for more then three minutes. He rememberd her telling him once that there was no reason to be angry with Kyo - _"He just got distracted, it could have hap... Where did those flowers come from?"_ No, she was definitely an odd piece of work. So why did he like her so much? 

And why was there part of him that feared her? 

*

Tichini knelt at the table in Hatori's dining room and stared at the soup. Hatori and Momiji ate as thogh it were an everyday occurance to have another join them for dinner. Tichini couldn't banish the tension though. 

It was her thought that people discussed things over dinner. When employers had dinners, it was usually good news. In fact, most often - in general circumstances - it was good news. Yet this was a quiet, still meal - as though there was something serious arising. Something like the death of a family member. 

Tichini took a spoonful of soup. Death - wouldn't that be an oddly familiar topic for them to bring up? It worried her all the same. If someone was dying, she doubted she would want to look death in the face long enough to try and heal them. The thought made her nervous. It seemed like ages before Hatori pushed his bowl aside. 

"You seem to understand that there is a reason for you being here," he said wiping his mouth with a napkin. His eyes seemed to bore through her head and see every thought. She simply stared back. As long as she was slipping into insanity, she may as well act it. 

"It is merely to inform you that your services here are temporary. You will go home after your third year and have no recollection whatsoever of your time here." 

"Why?" It wasn't the first question that should have come to mind - a likely one would have been "What the hell?" - and she took Hatori off-guard. She tried hard not to act pleased. Insanity was supposed to catch people of guard, wasn't it? 

"Because these are not normal circumstances," Hatori said, looking her in the eye as if searching for some flicker of doubt in her eyes. "The family you are about to serve is under a curse - a curse of the zodiac. Each cursed member turns into that animal when hugged by a member of th-" 

Tichini had started laughing. Her laugh came in sporatic gulps, thanks to her rib cage being in an eternal state of limbo as far as the healing process was concerned. Hatori and Momiji stared, sweatdrops forming on their heads. She laughed harder, tears welling in her eyes. It was a laugh of relief. It was a laugh because this was just humorous. 

"That's all?" Tichini wheezed. "Good lord, I thought you were going to tell me someone was about to die or something." 

"That doesn't bother you?" Hatori said with a raised eyebrow. Momiji looked positively ecstatic as Tichini shook her head, banishing the last of her laughter. 

"Can I hug her now, Ha'ri-san? Can I?" Momiji chirped, eyes wide in happiness. Hatori shrugged his shoulder ever-so-slightly. It had not really been an answer, but it was enough. Momiji vaulted himself across the table and flung his arms around Tichini. 

Nothing happened. 

+++++++++++++++++

A/N: Ah, this chapter is a big thank-you to all those nice reviewers out there. (I love you guys!  Everyone has been so nice so far!)  I got some great news today actually - Tokyo Pop is going to release the manga in english!  So those of us underprivledged people with no one to teach us Japanese can now enjoy the manga as well.  (I personally look forward to meeting Rin eventually!)


	5. Links

_::Disclaimer: I do not own any characters excluding Tichini.  These are the sole property of.. well, read the inside of your DVD boxes..:::_

            Kyo climbed onto his roof.  The sun was out for the first time in weeks and Kyo was eager to retreat to the solace of his retreat in the sky.  Spring had come quickly this year and he was not eager to waste another day indoors.  

Yuki was home - with crutches and more medications then a small pharmacy - but somehow the fun of it was gone.  Kyo could no longer taunt Yuki into fighting.  Though Kyo had healed long ago, along with Tichini, Yuki had been comparatively slow in recovering fully.  The fact irritated Kyo.  Yuki had always beaten him at everything, so why couldn't he beat him in healing fully?

Kyo had a lot to think about.  Their last midterms were drawing near.  He wasn't sure what he wanted to do afterwards.  Perhaps something with martial arts.  One thing was certain - he would leave the area as soon as possible.  Probably the country if he could.  It would be safer the further away from Sohma house he could get.

He lay on his back and stared lackadaisically at the clouds.  Life at the house was falling into monotony again.  Perhaps Tichini would come by for a visit with her psychotic ways - _that_ was always entertaining.  He felt a smile tug at the corners of his mouth.  He was glad that she had not died in the accident - more relieved however.

The accident.  There seemed to be no end to the problems it caused.  Kyo had been forbidden to ever drive again by almost everyone with sense, but had been allowed to keep his license.  With a downside of course.  His insurance fees had more then tripled.  Shigure took great joy in delivering each sizable envelope to Kyo personally.

Tohru was one of the few things in his life that had actually stayed the same under pressure.  Kyo had never thought about what was going to happen when they graduated - how was he going to survive without he in his life?  She always had a strange smile or an oddly helpful story about everything.  Sure she could be a little ditzy, but it was merely the fact that she _was_.

Still, tonight would be leeks for sure.  That was one thing about Tohru that irked him - she kept leeks on the meal plan even when Yuki wasn't there.  Kyo knew they had benefits when it came to colds and all, but who the hell would eat leeks on a regular basis?  It was like trying to feed a cat manure - there was no way in hell it was going to happen.  Dogs and rats might nibble at it, but a cat wouldn't touch it.  At least that was how Kyo like to think about it.

And now Yuki was back.  There would most definitely be leeks for dinner.

The breeze fluttered through the trees and made a soft, rustling sound.  It was a sound Kyo wished they could bottle so that he could listen to it constantly - they had the sounds of the ocean, how much harder could this be?  This was nice, not oppressive like water was.  Below he could hear the clicking of Yuki's crutches on the floor.

It was the only thing destroying his paradise.

*

            Tohru hummed as she stirred the stewed leeks.  She hoped Yuki would like them - he hadn't seemed very much like himself since the accident.  He was quieter then usual, in his own sulking way.  He had opened up a little since he came home from the hospital, but if wasn't quite the same.

            "Maybe we should have Tichini-san over for dinner sometime," Tohru said cheerily to Shigure (who had snuck into the kitchen attempting to take the leftovers from the night before without being noticed).

            Shigure sighed and reached for a leek instead.  "Perhaps," he said, not-so-contentedly chewing, "We should invite her over tonight.  She's been working with Ha'ri-san for about three months now; I doubt she would miss a chance to leave the compound.  She seems too cheerful to find him interesting."

            "You find Hatori-san interesting."

            "Yes, but I've known him since I was four.  There's a difference for someone who's nearly a decade younger and has just met the man."

            "Yuki-kun says he suspects she might be crazy," Tohru said with a slightly absorbed look on her face as she took the leeks off the burner.

            "She might well be," Shigure said with a snort, "But that _is_ what makes her interesting, isn't it?"

            "I suppose," Tohru said brightly.  "Would you call her please?"

            "If I must," Shigure said, with a whining look to Tohru's back.  

Tohru simply kept making the stewed leeks.

*

            Tichini limped painfully to her cottage.  Her whole body hurt.  Ribs, legs, head.  All pounded with the dull, resounding pain that refused to leave her.  All she wanted to do was crawl back to the over-sized cottage, take a painkiller - or several - and fall asleep.

            Painkillers.  They were her new best friends, and perhaps the only friends she had made at the Sohma house, short of Momiji.  Painkillers were wonderful things - pop a few and the world didn't bother her anymore.  She didn't feel her bones grating as she walked.  She didn't want to wince every time she took a breath.

            She barely had time to close the door before her knees started to buckle.  With a sigh, she pulled herself up on the counter.  She took a handful of the pills without water and lay down on her couch.  The lights were off - she hadn't bothered to turn them on.

            It was too bad she was exhausted.  She was hungry, but too tired to cook.  She had been here so long that this felt like a routine now.  Hatori knew nothing of it - he only noticed that she grew thinner and thinner as the days went by.  Momiji always handed her breakfast in the morning for some reason or another.  She had a feeling Hatori told him to, because over time the breakfast contained more and more sugar.

            Most of the Zodiac gave her a wide berth - as if she were something dangerous.  She didn't transform.  That was an oddity, and it was a frightening one.  The curse was not over, but she was immune.  It scared some and made others curious, thought most remained aloof.  Ayame had come to see her once.  He looked her over like a dress hanging in a shop window before saying he didn't see anything wrong with her.  With that he flounced off, leaving her staring.

            It was as if…  She never finished her though - simply drifted off into a clean sleep.  She was completely out of it in seconds.

            She never heard the phone ring.

+++++++++++++++++++++++

A/N: Ah, Chapter 5.  We all know what this means.  We're halfway through!  YAY!  Er.. I should probably stop celebrating now - there _are_ five more chapters and an epilogue to go. ::disgruntled chibi-Becca::  Anyhow, I [finally] saw DVD #4.  It was great - I loved Hiro and Ritsu.  Hiro reminds me of me!  Ah, I'll stop rambling now, I hope you all enjoy the story thus far and will watch for more chapters.


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